Cooking in North vs. South India

While in India, Charlie and I were delighted to take private cooking classes in the southern state of Kerala as well as the northern part of Jaipur. It was such a fun, full-sensory way to experience the culture and explore the differences (and similarities!) between North and South India.

Here I am test-tasting bottle gourd kofta fresh out of the steamer with Payal from Jaipur Home Cooking in Jaipur (North India)

Jacob from Pimenta Spice Garden Bungalows in Kerala (South India)

In the North, we took a daytime class at  Jaipur Home Cooking School with a kind and entrepreneurial gal named Payal. Her cooking studio happened to be very near to 28 Kothi, the hotel where we were staying, so she came and picked us up after breakfast, drove us to the nearby market to pick out our ingredients, and and then dropped us off we made and ate lunch together.

In the South, we did a 3-day culinary retreat at The Pimenta Spice Garden Bungalows in Kerala with a very hospitable gentleman named Jacob. He served us breakfast each morning, and then invited us into his teaching kitchen where he guided us in making lunch and dinner each day. Between meals, he also took us on outings to visit local markets and introduce us to people doing artisanal work.

Starting with the similarities: Both Payal and Jacob customized their instruction based on what Charlie and I were interested in learning. Rather than having a curriculum set in stone, they both fluidly designed menus based our preferences — which made each class feel extra special.

They’re also both passionate about making Indian cooking accessible and they guided us on how to flow between recipes to create complete meals. This was really key. Both Payal and Jacob emphasized how important it was to them that we walk away knowing how to make a complete meal with all the fixings.

Another similarity is that they both taught us specialties from their respective regions and took us to their local markets, however here’s where we get into some of the differences. 

Being 1500 miles away from each other, — that’s a 43-hour distance by car! — it was interesting to see the contrasts in what was available at the markets and taste their distinctive seasonings.

In South India, there are coconut trees everywhere!

Pulao: A kind of pilaf made with spiced basmati rice, steamed vegetables, dried fruit, nuts and fresh herbs

Touring Rakkaudella, an artisanal bean-to-bar chocolate workshop in Kerala with the owner, Kurian

THIS is the most robustly flavorful pineapple I’ve ever tasted (!) 📍 Vazhakulam Pineapple Market

In South India, we enjoyed artisanal chocolates that Jacob made from beans that were grown down the road, and tasted the most robustly flavorful pineapples I’ve ever had. There were also coconut trees and cashew groves everywhere, so for the first time in my life, these tropical ingredients that have always been so exotic to me were ‘local’ to where I was, and it made cooking with them that much more fun! South India has a reputation for being ‘spicier’ than North India, but Jacob taught us how to regulate the spice in dishes to our liking. The South Indian dishes that we made included: Vegetable Upma, Fresh Tomato Chutney, Pulao (pictured above), Okra Thoran, and Chickpea Curry with Steamed Rice Cakes.

In North India, Payal taught us how to whip together a thali - which seems like an elaborate multi-faceted way of eating that would be reserved for special occasions, but by following her lead and flowing seamlessly between tasks, we were able to cook so many more dishes from scratch than I would have thought we had time for! Our thali included rice with fresh green chickpeas, Rajasthani okra, dal with tomato tarka, homemade flat bread, and bottle gourd kofta. Kofta is typically fried, but Payal showed us a healthier variation so that we would know how to steam the kofta instead of frying it, at my request!

Fresh green chickpeas from the market in Jaipur, Rajasthan (North India)

The bottle gourd that we used to make steamed bottle gourd kofta from scratch

Class with Payal started with a visit to pick up freshly milled grain from the local market!

The thail that we made with Payal in Jaipur, North India

From the experience of being a student at Pimenta Spice Garden vs. Jaipur Home Cooking, the biggest difference between the classes is that Jacob provided us with printed recipes and he had all the raw ingredients cut and measured out ahead of time. By contrast, Payal talked us through the recipes orally and involved us in the entire prep process, starting from scratch.

Though so different, I’m glad I experienced both approaches because they were quite complimentary. I enjoyed the calm measuredness of Jacob’s approach and I like having the recipe PDFs to refer back to. And it was also quite helpful to see how Payal zipped through tasks without using any measuring cups or spoons, and I was able to take a lot of videos throughout her class that have helped jog my memory. 

Thanks to both Jacob and Payal, Charlie and I feel much more confident cooking with Indian spices than before, and we’re still cooking a lot of Indian food now that we’re back home! 🙏🏻 🇮🇳